December Adventures.

The sun brought a lot of smiles this week!

We kicked off the season of Advent

with a special visit from Gary the puppet at our chapel service.

Pastor Rouland and Gary reminded us that Advent is a time of waiting.  

Making ornaments was on our list of things to do to get ready for Christmas.

The kids had fun creating 

and painting them.

They couldn't wait to hang them on our tree.

This week we also learned about cubes.

The kids had a great time creating cubes 

and then transforming them into some amazing creations.

 

Mrs. Helmkamp also popped in this week.

Bee-bot was back too!

Each kid had a "letter" to deliver.

They had to program Bee-bot 

to get him to deliver the message to the right "person".

The kids were so excited when they got it right!

They were even excited when they almost got it right.  :)

They sure had fun with Bee-bot!

The kids also had fun helping the Ladies Aide get ready for Christmas.  The kids did a great job of singing for them.

After reading a book called, An Elf for Christmas,

The kids set to work creating some kind of contraption 

that would help the lost elf get back to the North Pole.

Some invented things that went on water

some went on the land like this car.

Of course we had quite a few airplanes too!

I think the elf would have been traveling in style to get to the North Pole!

YAY!  We were ready for more elf adventures.

An exciting elf game 

had us practicing our letter sounds,

but if we caught an elf...

We had to do some elf dances.

The kids had a GREAT time 

dancing life elves!

I had no idea what great "elf dancers" these kids are!

We were dancing our way through Friday!

Mrs. Martin stopped by to get us ready for a special Christmas presentation 

her 8th graders will be doing next week.

She had the kids practice being innkeepers.

They were very good at saying "NO ROOM!  Go away!" (in Spanish)

We can't wait to see what surprises the 8th graders have for us next week!

Our 4th grade buddies also stopped by to help us with our elf trap projects.

First the kids made a plan.

They designed their traps.

And figured out what materials they would need to make their traps.

Then they set to work shopping for materials.

They had to pay for their materials

before they could start creating.

The kids worked really hard.

And did a GREAT job of working together.

It was fun to hear their plans coming together.

They were so proud of their creations.

The kids had so much fun with their 4th grade buddies.

I'm not sure if these traps will catch any elves, 

But it was definitely worth the the smiles 

and  merry adventures!

What great friends we have already  made with our fourth grade buddies.

We ended our week with another great Friday reader.

This silly cupcake story... 

had the kids smiling from the inside out and a great way to end our day.

We are building memories one day at a time.  :)